Barrier systems have a variety of uses in a wide range of industries. Their uses include: protection of soil from water or wind erosion, protection of crops and plants from wind, sand trapping for dune or beach development, dust control, snow fences, livestock fences, water diversion, berms for storage of water or other liquids, silt fences and canal systems for water transport or liquid waste transport.
The design of such barrier systems depends to a large extent on their application. For example, sediment control barriers include the use of straw bales secured end to end and to the ground perpendicularly across the flow of water, sand bags piled on top of each other and aligned end to end perpendicularly across the flow of water, various kinds of log and stone barriers, cross trenches, terraced slopes, various kinds of concrete structures and gabions. Such designs may be found in the "Guidelines for the Reclamation of Linear Disturbances", produced by the Environmental Planning and Management Committee of the Canadian Petroleum Association.
Sediment control barriers also include filter fences, constructed of filter fabric, posts and wire fences. These are single vertical barriers made from a fabric supported in an upright position by posts and support mesh. Another design is a brush filter barrier made from a filter fabric draped over a brush barrier. Such designs are discussed in the "Handbook of Alternative Sediment Control Methodologies for Mined Lands", March 1985, U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of Surface Mining, Washington, D.C.
Another kind of barrier used for erosion control includes a matting or blanket, for example a weaved matting, placed directly on the ground. Small grains or grasses grow up through the weave of the matting to form the barrier. Such a flexible fabric blanket is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,292,365. In an alternative form, the flexible fabric blanket is wrapped around itself and placed vertically upward in a ditch to form a 3-ply vertical barrier.
A further use of barriers is for snow fencing. The U.S. Pat. No. 4,339,114, discloses such a snow fence made of a framing structure for supporting a fence face between spaced upright members. A mesh is placed over the frame, and angled supports on the leeward side of the fence support the fence. The angled supports attach to the upright posts at intermediate points on the upright posts.
These barriers suffer from certain disadvantages. The snow fence described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,339,114, is complex and expensive to build. For use in roadside erosion control applications, hay bales suffer the disadvantage of quickly disintegrating, rock piles and other rigid barriers are dangerous to motor vehicles that leave the road, and vertical fences are difficult to maintain, in that they tend to collapse under the weight of sediment.
The present invention is directed to overcoming these disadvantages, while providing a fence that is easy to install and easy to maintain.